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Huawei gets Russia's Scartel ready for VoLTE

Russian operator Scartel is now technically ready to deploy Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services on its LTE network following trials with Huawei, the Chinese vendor said in a statement.

Scartel/Yota, which is in the process of being fully acquired by Russian operator MegaFon for $1.18 billion (€884 million), worked with Huawei to deploy a SRVCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity) solution that implements a handover function to enable LTE voice call continuity in 2G/3G networks without any perceivable interruptions for the end user, the companies claimed.

Huawei also provides Scartel's radio access network, circuit switch core network, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and evolved packet core (EPC), as well as the Huawei Ascend P1 smartphone. The Russian company operates an LTE network covering 27 per cent of the Russian population. As of June 30, Scartel/Yota had around 648,000 consumer and business LTE data subscribers.

According to Infonetics Research, 12 commercial networks with the ability to support 8 million subscribers using VoLTE are expected to be deployed worldwide by the end of 2013.

Separately, in other Russian operator network news, MTS said it has signed up Nokia Solutions and Networks to upgrade and expand its mobile networks in Ukraine and Turkmenistan in order to improve its mobile broadband services in these markets. MTS said it is also deploying additional 3G base stations in Turkmenistan.

Nokia Solutions and Networks will provide the core network elements, radio access and services for these upgrades. No value was provided for the deal.

"We are launching a project to upgrade MTS networks, which will modernise networks in Ukraine and Turkmenistan by the end of 2014, extend mobile broadband coverage and increase capacity," MTS CTO Andrew Ushatsky said in a statement.

Under the terms of the contract, NSN is deploying core network elements including its Mobile Softswitching (MSS) systems and Multimedia Gateway (MGW) to handle MTS voice and multimedia services, as well as its Single RAN access platform based on the Flexi Multiradio Base Station.

The scope of the deal also includes a complete range of services, such as network implementation, planning and optimisation, systems integration and a full set of care services comprising hardware, software and competence development services.